


Instead, he left

by Ephy



Series: Street rat [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Justice League, Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 08:12:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1338328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ephy/pseuds/Ephy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he saw him, Dick thought it was a bad joke. Then he saw Bruce’s face – Batman’s face – as serious as ever, and knew it wasn’t.<br/>He’d been replaced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Instead, he left

**Instead, he left**

 

The first time he saw him, Dick thought it was a bad joke. Then he saw Bruce’s face – Batman’s face – as serious as ever, and knew it wasn’t.

He’d been replaced.

They were at the JLA for a debrief. Dick was present as the Teen Titans representative since the action had been combined – nothing quite as dramatic as a crisis, but no minor business either.

Still.

Had the kid been part of it? There’d been so much to do, Dick hadn’t noticed him if he had. But now, here he was, pixie boots and all, smirking at him. Dick pursed his lips and tried not to glare at Bruce – at Batman.

“Who is this?”

Batman glanced at the kid, as surprised to find him at his side.

“It’s Robin,” he answered.

“He is not. I would know.”

Batman blinked. Again with the surprise. Then he just _looked_ at Dick, waiting for explanations.

For fuck’s sake. He didn’t get it, did he? Well, if he didn’t, Dick wasn’t going to explain.

Instead, he left.

###

He didn’t see the boy for a while. They both scarcely went to the JLA and Dick sure wasn’t going to Gotham. He heard about him though. Papers talking about Bruce Wayne newly adopted son. JLA members complaining about his temper and asking Dick if he really didn’t want his old job back, half-joking.

(Afterwards, Dick would wonder if Jason had heard. Wonder how many people told him they liked the first Robin better.)

At the time, though, Dick hadn’t minded. On the contrary. He was so angry at Bruce for replacing him – for giving his mother name for him to another kid, for Christ’s sake!

So, any mean remark about it made him viciously satisfied.

###

They crossed path again in New York. Dick had heard Bruce was in town but the hell if he was going to run away because of him. He’d pointedly arrived at Titan Tower at 8PM on Friday, intending to spend the whole week-end.

Of course, they had to run into each other.

(Later, he’d wonder if Jason had been looking for him. He probably had.)

“Hello Nightwing. It’s kinda quiet over here.”

Something, in the turn of the phrase, the kid’s smirk or his thick Gotham accent, icked Dick. Or it was just the whole goddamn situation.

“It’s just as busy as any other town.”

The kid lost his smile.

“Damn you, man. I know you despise me but can’t you just tell me to fuck off instead of biting my head off over a fucking _hello_?”

Dick blinked. Well, that was direct for sure.

“I don’t despise you,” he started.

“Yeah, right. You just happen to bite on a lemon whenever you see me. And here I heard so many things about your smile.”

“About my smile?”

“About your ass too, don’t you worry, pretty boy.”

Dick gaped. Who _was_ that kid?

“Not liking what you see? I ain’t surprised. I ain’t cut for all the joyful laugh and bright colors but hell, someone had to fill the gap.”

“ _Excuse me_?”

The kid started to look annoyed.

“Are you dumb or what?”

Anger came bubbling back in Dick’s throat.

“You come here in my town, in my clothes, asking me questions and now you’re calling me _dumb_? I didn’t despise you but this is me reconsidering!”

The kid snorted.

“Awake at last. Well, birdie boy, let me tell you, either this ain’t your town or those ain’t your clothes. Robins nest in Gotham. Besides, I didn’t saw you flying around in anything but blacks and blues lately.”

Dick gritted his teeth.

“What do you want?”

The kid gauged him. Then shook his head.

“Nothing.”

“What, you travelled all those miles and now you’re pussing out?”

The kid straightened, as stroke by thunder.

“I ain’t! But why should I talk if you won’t listen?”

“I’m listening.”

The kid looked at him again and nodded slowly.

“Alright. I stole your stuff the first time. He wouldn’t let me but you did leave a gap, when you left.”

 _He_ being Bruce, of course.

“He can take care of himself, as he told me quite loudly.”

Ouch, that sounded whiny. Dick hadn’t meant to.

“Not with _him_!” The kid was back to exasperation. “With _Gotham_! Do you know how many street kids looked up to you? Batman means protection, someone looking after you, or after _someone_ , from the dark. You… You were _hope_. Hope there was somethin’ _else_ than the dark!”

He started walking around, arm spread.

“When you disappeared from the roofs, I had to make up stories about how you were busy on some case in the Himalaya or elsewhere. Then I invented you’d retired in some happy place. But the kids, they ain’t no idiots.”

He stopped, facing Dick.

“We thought Robin was _dead_.”

That stroke Dick like a punch.

Then another thought popped up. The kid actually had a good reason for being Robin.

Dick himself had started just to _help people_. At 12, he hadn’t thought any further. At 14, he’d also done it for _Bruce_ , for Batman, because Robin kept him – not entirely in the light, but out of the darkness.

Now, well, this was his life. He couldn’t do anything _else_ but to continue. Stopping wasn’t part of the plan, not ever.

But that kid… He was being Robin for _Gotham_.

That was precisely as fucked up as Bruce and, somehow, that made it right.

Dick came back in present times and gave the kid a good look. Jason Todd, he remembered from the _Inquisitor_. He was 13 and Bruce had found him in the streets. In Gotham’s streets.

Had _Bruce_ found him, or had _Batman_? Dick suddenly wondered.

“Earth to birdie boy?”

“Are you in New York for a case?”

Jason pulled a face.

“No, the Big Guy has true-life business in town. ‘said I had to _come and watch and learn and shut up_ , end of the quote.”

Bruce probably hadn’t put it that way, but that was certainly close enough.

“So you have a free evening. Do you want me to show you around?” Jason blinked. Dick grinned at him. “Well, Robin? You coming or not?”

The kid didn’t quite blush but his smile still was much softer than his previous smirk.

“’Course I am!”

###

They never became friends. Jason was way too harsh. He often annoyed Dick, and Nightwing couldn’t help but wince each time the kid punched a thug hard enough to crack bones.

But they had a working relationship and sometimes, Robin would even grin at him.

###

Later, Dick wondered how it would have ended, if he’d tried harder to be his brother.

**Author's Note:**

> Dick is much closer to Tim than he ever was to Jason. But then, probably it's because Jason is the "first Robin after Dick", before it became a title...  
> I have to say I LOVE Dick! It's just not an easy period for him.  
> I also choose not to write down Jason's point of view of the events because Jason being Jason, he'd deny that Dick's behavior hurts him. Dick wasn't quite his hero (Batman was) but Robin!Dick still meant something to him. I imagine him so glad to finally meet him, not knowing all the background surrounding Dick and Bruce, nor the reason why Dick left.  
> Perhaps sometime I'll write how that experience with Jason is one of the reasons why Dick is so close to Tim :) Because yeah, Dick is still an amazing guy.  
> (Now I leave you before the note become longer than the oneshot...)


End file.
